Seven State AGs Call on OHSA to Issue Emergency Temporary Heat Stress Standard
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The attorneys general of New York, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania today petitioned the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for an emergency standard to prevent dangerous occupational heat stress. Public Citizen released a report in June 2022 calling on OSHA to issue such a standard. Juley Fulcher, worker health and safety advocate for Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“Millions of essential workers across the country, working both indoors and outdoors, risk their health and lives working in excessive heat conditions to keep our economy running. As OSHA navigates the extensive procedures and bureaucratic hurdles to create a final heat standard, the danger to workers continues unabated.
“Too many American workers have suffered from occupational heat stress. And climate change continues to make an already-urgent crisis even more dangerous. As our summers grow hotter and more deadly, OSHA must heed the call of these seven AGs and issue an emergency heat standard to protect workers.”